Valuable services for Olen

Together with the municipality of Olen we created a vision for the future of their services. We translated this vision, based on five values, into guidelines for employees, ideas and a roadmap towards implementation.

Client: Municipality Olen

www.olen.be

A tailored vision

The municipality of Olen wished to develop an ambitious vision for its service provision. Following the organizational merger of the “OCMW” and the municipality, they also wanted to develop a common framework of principles as the final step in this integration. A framework to get everybody working towards the same goal and to develop an integrated range of services for their customers.

Together, we created a vision tailored to Olen, a vision that reflects the city’s individuality, while also safeguarding it. A vision that is sufficiently overarching, so as to remain relevant in the long run, but also concrete enough to guide the day-to-day service provision by the local administration’s employees.
A vision that also serves as a compass to decide on service-related matters, such as:

How far should we take the digitization approach? What should we invest in? What are our priorities? How do we deal with working by appointment? Which trends in service provision do we want to focus on?

Analysis

The new vision was implemented in three major phases. In the analysis phase, we evaluated the current service provision and underlying internal operation, together with employees and citizens. Findings became challenges. And those challenges were prioritized according to their importance to the citizen and the organization.

Co-creation

In the co-creation phase, we worked together to develop the vision: we devised solutions to the challenges, determined the unique values that characterize Olen’s DNA, and translated these values into service provision principles. Subsequently, the ideas and the vision were tested with the various target groups.

Roadmap

In the final phase, the planning phase, we elaborated all of the foregoing in great detail: we determined what impact the various ideas would have on the organization and created a roadmap for all of the ideas and projects

A varied mix of stakeholders for sustainable results

For every step in the process, we worked together with a broad mix of stakeholders. Members of the management team, employees from all sectors of the organization, and representatives from all political parties, all contributed. This led to a broad support base and qualitative anchoring.

The cooperation with Olen’s politics, especially, is a unique and strong part of the story. By working with the political majority and opposition to build the vision, we increase public support and also increase the chances that this vision will be sustained in the long run (across legislatures). By also shaping specific projects and initiatives together, we increase the chances that they will eventually end up in the long-term plan, thereby firmly securing their implementation.

Strong team

In addition, our multidisciplinary team collaborated on this project with Bart Noels, “VVSG” expert, who guides self-learning networks on service provision. Bart has access to many examples and best practices in Flanders, which he was able to use as triggers and inspiration for Olen.

Values

The foundation of the vision on service provision is based on Olen’s values."What do we stand for? What do we want to offer our customers, employees, visitors, etc.? What are we proud of, what sets us apart from neighboring municipalities?"

Values are more than just the quality specifications for service provision (e.g. correct, punctual, honest, etc.). Values really determine the unique identity of the local government. We translated these values into service provision principles. These are guidelines that can guide every employee throughout the provision of services.

Coming up with ideas isn’t hard, but making it all happen is!

The trick is to make the ideas as specific and concrete as possible. The solutions must be value-enhancing and relevant in every phase of the service provision, and tailored to each target group.

Olen formulated a set of 40 ambitious ideas. Each idea was weighed, prioritized and developed into an implementation sheet. We created a visual roadmap that divides the ideas into phases and subprojects, thus preparing Olen for the step-by-step implementation of their ambitions.

Results

While developing the roadmap, we made sure to plan for successes that can be achieved in the short term. This creates enthusiasm and support for the implementation and projects in the longer term. Thanks to this practical instrument, Olen was able to immediately achieve a number of things:

Put values into practice

And embed them in the organization during an intensive roadshow, covering all levels of the organization.

HR instruments

Incorporate the values in the existing and new HR instruments (vacancies, evaluations, etc.)

Roadmap

Service provision is one of the eight major policy objectives in the multi-year plan.

Integrated hospitality

Launched the start-up project “integrated hospitality” with the teams that currently do hospitality at three service locations.

Roadshow

HR-instrumenten (interne merchandise)

Do you also want to renew your service provision through a customer-oriented approach?

Or is there something else we can help you with?
Don’t hesitate to contact us!